Mr. Larson keeps pumping these books out and the most amazing thing is they are all great books. Lots of humorous activity by none other than Centurion James McGill. As you will recall, McGill is a member of Legion Varus which currently in stand-down mode which means McGill is back home in Georgia basking in a little free-time and lots of booze. Everything was going just fine until Primus Graves showed up. Now Graves isn’t a bad guy when you look at the problem he has managing McGill and his unit. He pretty much knows what McGill is all about and that doesn’t cut McGill any slack what-so-ever. And for the most part, when Primus Graves tells Centurion McGill to get some mission done, McGill does it in pretty good order. Those times he doesn’t are usually due to extenuating circumstances like Tribune Winslade or even Imperator Turov getting involved.
This time, though, Graves wanted to check on something that had been buried in a bunker bad in the depths of the swamp lands owned by McGill’s parents. This bunker had been off-limits to everyone for a long, long time until Etta, McGills daughter, happened to find it during the last book. Now McGill wishes he had never heard of that bunker nor had he ever gone down into it. But, Graves knew McGill had been inside the bunker and now he wanted McGill to accompany him to check on the conditions of the bunker once again.
Apparently this bunker had held the “brains” of several Earth revolutionaries who had caused a lot of trouble a long time before McGill was ever born. Graves had either been part of that trouble or he knew a lot about it so much so that anyone speaking of those rebellious times were instantly suspected of treason. McGill, himself, had been killed a few times just for doing some innocent research on what the rebellion was all about. So, for Graves to want to go stomping around in that bunker didn’t set well with McGill.
But, nothing happened. Graves found out what he wanted to know, then he took McGill back to the capital and Central HQ. There McGill found out that something was about to happen that involved the Rigellians. Earth and the Rigellians were at war, sort of. Both had suffered some attacks but things had died down for awhile. Even Earth had fought two battles near Rigel without much of an effort from the Rigellians. Come to find out, there was something beyond the edge of the know universe, way beyond Rigel that was attacking frontier worlds by slinging huge rocks at various planets. These rocks were big enough to actually split and destroy smaller planets and moons. Any planet hit by these rocks would subsequently see all organic life die on the entire planet.
The mission given to Legion Varus was to close with 31 Orionis (Jungle World), capture the planet for Earth and find out what was going on with the Rigellians. The only legion going on this mission was Legion Varus so that was kind of different. Additionally, the mystery got even mysterious when Abigale Cleaver secretly shows on their transport ship and tells Galina and McGill that they must not go to 31 Orionis or it would be the end of their Legion! So, what’s going on in this book? You’ll have to read the entire story to find out.
As usual, there’s no mention of another book, but I strongly expect to see another book in the Undying Mercenaries series soon.